Winter vacation....

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday! Our family was signed up to be greeters at church on Christmas day. After opening presents from Santa, we went to the beautiful holiday service. I love to see the church decorated and listen to the traditional carols. Then we went to Gramps and Judes cabin to exchange gifts and visit with Sam, Jessie and Nic. (Poor Sam and Jessie had a hard time getting back to Boston with the big snow storms out east!) Then it was on to Grandpa and Grandma's Christmas day dinner. We exchanged gifts with them and Shelly and Dan before the extended family arrived and had a chance to catch up with Sarah about how she and Adam were spending the holiday in Oregon. Norah always has a great time with her cousin Reese. Grandma set a table for just the two of them, but I am pretty sure Norah only ate potatoes (and maybe a little salad) before they were off playing again! I did not have my camera that day so I hope to get pictures via email soon! On the 27th, Stephan went to winter camp at Camp Matawa for a fun filled few days of tubing at Sunburst ski hill, archery (see above), cross country skiing, sledding, baking cookies, a New Year's Eve Eve Eve party and more! The camp posted a few pictures of the kids on their facebook page so we could keep up with the action.

Here the kids had made toboggans out of boxes in the camp's first toboggan making competition and race. Unfortunately, the 4 days ended up on a bummer of a note. Toward the end of the last day, a girl got upset with Stephan because she thought he bumped her on purpose after cross country skiing and hit him in the head with her ski pole. (Even if he had bumped her on purpose, why would someone react that way?) Stephan also had a fever when I picked him up. He has been sick for a few days now, but has been able to reflect on more of the fun activities at camp. We have no snow left after a very warm NYE (it's freezing again), but I hope we get more soon. I'd like to go snow shoeing with Steve.

On NYE, I ran in the Run Into the New Year 10k put on by the Racers Against Childhood Cancer. The group puts on a series of winter runs, and I hope to run in two more of them. Although, we were spoiled on this day with 50 degree temperatures! I ran in 56.06 minutes, which is faster than my time of 57.54 at the Shamrock Shuffle 10k last year in Madison. (Although, this course was flat unlike the Madison race. I felt better overall though.)

It was a raining day though and the kids had more fun staying with Grammy while Casey went to the State Fair grounds to meet me at the finish line. Well, Norah had fun; Stephan just slept on the couch :(

It was GREAT to see Casey at the finish line! He was in a spot that wasn't too crowded so I actually spotted him. I appreciated that he stood there in the heavy drizzle to wait for me.

This is Norah (painting). She likes to be silly. She likes to make goofy faces. And whenever possible, she prefers to use comedic voices.

She is sleeping in the picture, but it didn't start out that way. She thinks it's a riot to pull her hat down over her face. And on this day (Christmas actually) she fell asleep that way! (Yes, there are holes so she can breathe.)